Jupiter
Jupiter (A.k.a. Sol V, "Reaper," "Ebott") is a massive Jovian-class planet, and is the fifth planet from the star Sol. It is the core world for the EREDS institute. Planet Characteristics Jupiter is the largest planet in the Sol system, and its mass and volume surpasses the combined mass of every celestial object in the Sol system smaller than itself. It is a behemoth of a gas giant; a titanic sphere of hydrogen and helium gas swirling around a small, extremely dense and hot core. Jupiter, being a gas giant, has no recorded solid surface. Its cloud tops are a sea of gaseous bands, eddies, whirlpools, and lightning storms. The most prominent feature of Jupiter is the Great Red Spot, a mammoth anticyclone with a striking copper-red hue that has lasted for more than 400 years since its discovery, and scientists agree the storm has lasted for much longer. Satellites Jupiter, like all other gas giants in the Sol system, has a set of rings and an armada of moons. Jupiter's rings are massive but thin, comprised of dust, ash, and rock, with thin mining colonies branching out from shepherd moons distributed within the rings. Jupiter has the most moons of any planet in the Sol system, its grand total exceeding 70. The four largest moons; Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto were all discovered in the early 17th century by an Italian astronomer named Galileo Galilei. The so-called "Galilean Moons" were the first moons in the Sol system to be colonized by Earth. History Jupiter was the second planet of the Sol system to have a colony established in its sphere of influence, the first of which being Mars. When robotic landers that landed on Jupiter's moon Europa revealed signs of life, multiple space-faring factions scrambled to be the first to colonize Europa, and the other Jovian moons. Eventually tensions between nations grew as colonies branched out, connecting one another and forming a vast web across the Jupiter system. In 2068, however, the dominant space factions at the time - being the Federation and Weyland-Yutani - agreed to sign a treaty to prevent nuclear interplanetary war, saving billions of lives across multiple worlds. Just three years after the "Reaper's Treaty," a small faction named the Ebott Research and Exploration of Deep Space (EREDS) institute purchased a small part of the Jupiter system from Weyland-Yutani, and EREDS then began the construction of Ebott's Hope, a gas refinery located just above Jupiter's cloud tops. This was established shortly after the development of warp-drive, a mode of transportation capable of interstellar travel. This sparked a new era called the Era of Pioneers, where Weyland and other factions would branch out from the Sol system and into the interstellar frontier. Trivia * MechanicPluto24's favorite planet is Jupiter, one reason why they added it to the comic. * Jupiter's nickname "Reaper" comes from a Kerbal Space Program mod named "After Kerbin," where the Jupiter analogue is renamed to "Reaper." * Although in the comic Jupiter has the Great Red Spot, scientists have confirmed the storm is indeed shrinking, and may vanish within two decades. Category:Locations